Past Meet Present
by Neph Champion
Summary: Summary: The first time Uzumaki Kushina meets Yoko no Kurama, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, she's with her not-so-secret crush and hopefully-future-husband-to-be, shopping for more read: better ninja supplies. Kushina certainly isn't sure what to think, especially when it becomes obvious that Kurama only has eyes for her Minato.


Idea: Kushina and Kyuubi's first meeting, exert of The Other Moon Princess.

Summary: The first time Uzumaki Kushina meets Yoko no Kurama, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, she's with her not-so-secret crush and hopefully-future-husband-to-be, shopping for more (read: better) ninja supplies. Kushina certainly isn't sure what to think, especially when it becomes obvious that Kurama only has eyes for _her _Minato.

Disclaimer: I don't own the franchise Naruto. If I did… Kyuubi would be nicer, Naruto might be a girl or rather he'd be able to shift between genders…and his parents would still be alive.

Title: An Unexpected Meeting Between the Past and Present

(Bloody Habanero, Meet Kyuubi no Kitsune)

The first time she sees _him_ (Kyuubi), Uzumaki Kushina becomes curious. She has a large picnic basket next to her and is watching an eighteen year old Namikaze Minato (blond haired Rookie GENIUS of her graduating class, hunk, cutie, Awesome cook, and the young man that she wanted so badly that it _hurt_) train with his students. He had three: Hatake Kakashi (a cute little silver-haired nine-year-old with dark blue, almost grey eyes) who had been his student the longest, Yagami Rin, (an eleven-year-old girl with brown hair and purple facial markings) who had been with him for six months so far, and Uchiha Obito (twelve-years-old, typical Uchiha looks, blackish-blue hair with dark grey eyes; who had just gotten clearance to train) and had only been with them for a week and a half.

He looked to be even taller than her best male friend (how that was possible Kushina wasn't sure, no one was taller than _her_ Minato…) with eyes that looked so red she was tempted to compare them to her hair and silver hair a few shades darker than Kakashi's. He didn't seem to notice that she'd even seen him; his eyes were glued to her Minato. She felt her blood begin to boil the longer she watched the other, what right did he have to undress _her_ other best friend with his eyes? Ok, so she did it too, but she made sure Minato knew that she wanted him. She had never met this man before and she was sure that Minato hadn't either. She couldn't sense his chakra, he most likely was hiding it, but he wasn't really hiding physically. He was sitting on a tree branch only half hidden!

She was tempted to call the other out and to tell him to go away, to keep his eyes off _her_ best friend. The man was violating Minato with his gaze! She took a deep breath to calm herself and to think of a way to get Minato away from him! Her Yondaime could be so oblivious at times that she sometimes wondered how he had been chosen to succeed the Sandaime. But she loved him just the way he was, Flaky moments and all. "Minato, it's nearly lunch time!" she called to the four training ninja, she had worked her butt off to make this lunch special, she hoped they liked it. "Hurry up!"

"Coming Kushina-chan," Minato called back a second later. "Ok kids, we're done for now, who's hungry?" Minato flushed when he heard his own stomach growl and he covered it with his arms, but that didn't stop from his students snickering.

Kushina heard three grumbles and had to giggled, believing them to be the student's stomachs complaining. She grabbed the basket and stood as her Hokage and his students approached her. "Why don't we go eat in another area of the training ground, it's much too open here." She suggested, hoping Minato would take the bait. She didn't want that stranger anywhere near her best friend, ever. "It doesn't even have to be very far from here, I just think we should eat elsewhere…"

Her best friend frowned slightly, his eyes narrowing "Are you sure? If it's not safe then you should have said something sooner and I would have moved our training elsewhere…" but he said this in a Naïve tone of voice

Kushina placed a fingertip to her crush's mouth, "Shh, Minato, look over there…" she pointed discretely to the man that had been watching them for she didn't know how long.

Minato's eyes followed her finger, narrowing a bit more when he saw that _someone was there_ when his senses couldn't pick anything up, no Chakra signature no nothing. Still, the stranger did seem familiar to him, he wasn't sure why but thought that it had to do with the strange dreams that he'd been having for the past few years. He gave her a nod to show that he understood exactly what she was doing, getting him and his students away from an unknown threat. "Lead the way then Kushina-chan." As the Hokage, he had to be protected much as it grated on his nerves (he could protect himself damn it!), the best way to do that was to eliminate unknowns, either by having the unknown _dealt with_ of by getting him out of the area.

Kushina nodded, smiling. Her best friend was good at picking up the moods of others; it's what made him a good leader. Kushina was sure that Minato had some form of empathy. She watched Minato and his team leave the clearing before sending a vicious glare at the man who had interrupted her afternoon. Along with a victorious smirk when the man sent her a glare of his own. She had planned this day for weeks there was no way she was letting anyone ruin the only day she and Minato had off in the last month! 'That's what you get for interrupting!' she thought savagely, turning to follow Minato and his team when the Yondaime called to her.

"Coming Minato!" Kushina called back, taking off.

Kyuubi eyed the little girl as she ran off after his mate, who was she trying to fool? If Kaiko-hime was forced to choose, Kyuubi was sure that she would pick him. Let this little girl think she'd won; it wouldn't matter in the end.

Kushina Meet Kyuubi

Minato gave her a thoughtful look as he watched her set up the picnic for them. "He seemed familiar to me…"

"You know him Minato-sama?" Kushina asked as she set out the plates and started to pull out the food and put it on the blanket. She gave him a curious look.

Minato shook his head, "No, I've never met him before. So I don't know why he seems familiar…" that was a lie he did actually, the man Kushina had seen matched the description of the man in his strange dreams to a 'T' but nobody knew about those dreams and he wasn't about to tell Kushina, even if she was one of his best friends! She'd call him crazy at the very least!

Kushina gave him a hard, searching look, she couldn't really understand it either, "Déjà vu maybe?" she asked uncertainly. "Why else would he seem familiar and yet not be?"

Minato shrugged, "I have no idea, but that sounds about right…" internally, Minato flinched, his friend had hit scarily close to the truth and he didn't want anyone to ever find out about that. It would be hard enough explaining away his gender confusion and identity issues without this on top of it. Minato knew that it was only a matter of time before Kushina stumbled onto those…

He dreaded the time when he would be forced to explain to her everything that had been going on. "Let's forget about it for now and just eat, huh?" he asked her eyeing their lunch, "It all looks really good Kushina-chan!"

"Sure Minato," Kushina replied with a blush, "I hope it tastes as good as it looks…" If it didn't, she swore that she was going to cry.

Minato picked up his chopsticks and Kushina watched with baited breath as he tasted it, 'Please, please, please...' Kushina pleaded silently, 'Please let him like it…'

Minato popped a piece of sushi in his mouth and chewed on it thoughtfully, "It's very good Kushina-chan!"

Kushina sagged in relief, "Thank you Minato, I worked really hard on it today."

"I can tell," Minato replied with a smile. "You've out done yourself today."

Kushina blushed and they put the strange man out of their minds.

Kushina Meet Kyuubi

It was several months later when Kushina actually met the man, she was jogging to meet with Minato in the park when she saw the man leaning on the bench Minato was sitting on, chatting. She pumped some chakra into her ears so that she could listen into their conversation. "…So you're visiting from Demon Country then? What's it like there, Kyuubi-san?" Minato was asking.

"It's beautiful, most have a place to stay but that place isn't their home, their homes are elsewhere." Kyuubi explained.

"I see, so where is your home then, Kyuubi-san?" Minato asked curiously.

"Here in Fire County."

"Really, you must be away from home a lot then, Demon Country is far away from here…" Minato breathed, blushing when 'Kyuubi' leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

Kushina stiffened, almost growling as she approached them, "Minato-sama~!"

Minato turned, looking up at her with wide eyes. He smiled, calling her over. "Kushina-chan, come meet him!"

Kushina glared at the man as she sat next to Minato.

"Kyuubi-san, this is Uzumaki Kushina; she's one of my best friends here in Konoha." Minato introduced her.

"Pleased to meet you, Kushina-hime," The man called Kyuubi said to her in a pleasant, friendly voice. "You hail from Uzu don't you?"

Kushina blinked, "…Yes I do actually," she replied, "How did you know that my father was the Daimyo and my Mother the Uzukage before the fall?"

"I make it my business to know who's who, Kushina-hime," Kyuubi answered with a brilliant smile. Kushina didn't know who or how but she was starting to like him.

"Anyway…" Kyuubi gave the two a mischievous smile. "How about I take the two of you and the kids to lunch? My treat."

Minato nodded and smiled realizing how hungry he was, "I don't see why not, what do you think, Kushina-chan?"

"…Ok."

'OOOH! Please let it be ramen, please, please, please!' Minato silently begged. Kyuubi couldn't help but notice that gesture. It was perfect, now he knew Minato had a weakness. Kushina found this out as well. This could not end well.

(End)

This got hard towards the end, which is why it's a bit abrupt, but I just didn't know what else to do. Happy Birthday Kushina-hime~!


End file.
